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The Animation Guild contract expires soon. Will AI fears lead to a strike?
Pixar Pier at Disneyland Park in Anaheim.
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Christian Thompson
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Walt Disney World Resorts via Getty Images
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Topline:
Last summer’s writers and actors strikes persisted over several thorny issues, including streaming residuals, minimum staffing requirements and AI. This summer, SAG-AFTRA video game performers and Animation Guild workers are both fighting over one problem: AI.
Why it matters: Video game workers, who are already on strike, and animators and other craftspeople who create animation, which are threatening to do so, believe that studios’ avid interest in deploying AI technology will lead to them losing their jobs. The only way to stop the nightmare, they believe: A deal that ensures ethical AI use and protects creative work.
Animation woes: AI isn’t some distant reality for animation workers — the technology can’t quite create a Pixar movie yet, but animators worry studios will prematurely replace jobs with AI, particularly in computer graphic animation and storyboarding. The guild’s contract with the studios expires on Friday. Although talks could continue, the guild will call a strike authorization vote to its thousands of paying members if deemed necessary.
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Game (not) over: SAG-AFTRA’s video game workers make up a niche sect of the union’s broad member base, but 98% of the union voted “yes” to authorize the now in-progress strike. Voiceover artists and motion-capture specialists worry that companies will create AI-powered versions of their work. Those fears are also tacked onto concerns about contraction in the industry this year, including 11,500 layoffs in 2024 alone.
For more ... read the full story on The Ankler.
This story is published in partnership with The Ankler, a paid subscription publication about the entertainment industry.
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